December 3, 2003	Wednesday	Shawwal 8, 1424

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MUZAFFARABAD, Dec 2: Azad Jammu and Kashmir Supreme Court here on Tuesday allowed the petition for leave to appeal against the admission of two almost identical writ petitions by the High Court regarding a disqualification reference against Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan.

The reference was filed by the People’s Party with Legislative Assembly Speaker Sardar Siab Khalid for disqualification of the PM for his alleged support to Chenab Formula that suggests the division of Kashmir on the basis of River Chenab.

The reference was however rejected by speaker untenable. PPAJK filed petition in the High Court contending that the speaker did not have powers to reject the reference and instead he was bound to forward it to the chief election commissioner. Even if the speaker had the powers for rejection, the points raised in the reference were important enough to be sent to the CEC, the PPAJK had stated.

A member of the AJK Council Sardar Sawar Khan also filed another petition in the High Court stating that Sardar Sikandar be disqualified from being MLA and hence prime minister for violation of his oath whereby he had pledged allegiance to the ideology of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan.

Both petitions were admitted by the High Court for hearing.

However, the AJK government, Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat and Speaker Sardar Siab Khalid filed leave to appeal in the Supreme Court against the admission of the petitions by the HC. They said the speakers had powers to reject the reference and that the HC was not competent to hear the petitions against the rejection.

The PM also submitted an affidavit in the apex court in which he said “he had never given any formula, adopted any idea, (or) propagated any suggestion with respect to the division of Kashmir in any form or manifestation; nor had he propagated any idea in derogation to the ideology of the accession of Kashmir with Pakistan and the objects of resolutions of UN Security Council and UNCIP.”

“The statements appearing in the press from time to time attributed to him (and) giving an impression with respect to the division of Kashmir or the propagation of any idea in derogation to the ideology of Pakistan and the principles laid down in the UN SC resolutions were not only false and misleading rather they were frivolous,” he had further stated.

The PM’s affidavit by disputed by two local journalists, who in their counter affidavits stated that the PM had on a number of occasions categorically supported Chenab formula in his press talks with local and foreign newsmen.

The leave to appeal petition was heard by full bench of Supreme Court comprising Chief Justice Yunus Surakhvi, Justice Khawaja Mohammad Saeed and Justice Chaudhry Mohammad Taj which had in the meanwhile ordered the High Court to suspend proceedings on the petitions.

On Tuesday, the full bench announced that after hearing the respective contentions of the parties and perusing the relevant record it was of the view that the points canvassed by both sides were of vital legal importance and merited consideration to be resolved in a regular appeal.